The invention relates to enhanced telecommunications services, and more particularly relates to telecommunications services provided over the Internet.
A key feature of intelligent communications networks is the identification of the calling party using, for example, a telephone number assigned to the calling party. Currently, such networks, e.g., the well-known Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), presents the caller""s address in a conventional manner as a xe2x80x9ccaller IDxe2x80x9d or ANI to a receiving, or called party via a caller ID device or ISDN terminal. Aimed with such information, the called party may then decide whether or not to answer the call. Network services have been implemented to block calls that originate from a caller who has blocked the transmission of the caller ID. Moreover, sophisticated commercial call distribution applications, such as a call center, use such calling-party information, to prioritize incoming calls, route incoming calls deemed important to particular representatives and present those representatives with information relating to the respective calling party. Further, personal-telephone-call screening services use calling-party information to route an incoming to the called party""s current location or to a messaging service.
The amount of calling-party information that may be routed along with the associated call has increased as a result of traditional PSTN synchronous communications migrating to more robust modes of packet networks. For example, one prior Personal Computer (PC) application allows a calling user to mix audio, video and text, in which a calling party is identified by a label they have selected and which is transmitted to the called-party""s PC. The receiving PC displays the identity of the party using that label. Some messaging systems allow a caller to use similar procedures. For example, the called party may specify how calls from different callers ought to be handled. In both PSTN and packet networks, calls are transmitted through the network with two fields respectively bearing calling and called party identifiers.
Call processing services help a caller to manage their outbound telephone calls as well as inbound calls. Outbound call management services can assist the user in placing a call using different services, such as PC click to dial, voice dialing, or establishing a conference call. For example, a caller may use his/her PC or voice to identify whom they want to call and the outbound service responds by supplying the called address to the network. Inbound call services help a caller manage incoming calls, such as by providing a single reach number, call screening, call waiting, etc. For example, a user may use voice screening to decide whether to answer a call. Recent xe2x80x9cunifiedxe2x80x9d services help a user with other forms of communications, including E-mail, facsimile, and other text messaging. For example, unified messaging is typically an inbound service that stores and retrieves all messages and may provide outbound characteristics, such as returning a message with a telephone call. Services that provide both inbound and outbound services are desirable. For example, a subscriber may forward a message to another such subscriber or return a message with a message when accessing stored messages, as is similarly done in voice messaging. However, there is currently no way for generalized communications services respectively serving the calling and called parties to locate and interact with each other to provide enhance calling features/capabilities if both parties do not subscribes to these services. Consequently, such enhanced calling/called features/ capabilities could not be invoked.
Based on the foregoing, I have recognized that there is a need to further extend calling party and called party identity information so that it includes other key information useful to services representing each user or each end of a call. Such services may include outbound call management and inbound call management that employ one or more transmission media, which may result in direct synchronous or asynchronous communications or messaging. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, each service may reside solely in the network, Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), or be coordinated between the two. This is accomplished by transmitting additional field information to allow the services to locate one another and exchange information that will assist the services in completing their respective functions. The information field, more particularly, provides the network address of a calling party""s Service Information Server (SIS) that the services may access remotely to obtain a specification of each other""s service capabilities. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a service may query a database associated with the other party to obtain information relating to other party so that the service may properly execute their respective party""s subscription of services. The subscription of services may include, for example, (a) a personalized rolodex card; (b) capabilities of the user""s/subscriber""s CPE; (c) address of the other CPE; (d) the subscriber""s public encryption key; (e) authentication of the subscriber""s identity; (f) mailbox address; (g) call priority; and (h) a calendar, as well as other features/services and extension thereof, as will be explained below.
These and other aspects of the invention will be appreciated from the following detailed description read in conjunction with accompanying drawings.